Doc Holiday's Witch Street Chopper May 1970

Back in November of 2010 I posted The Witch as featured in Roth's Choppers Magazine (click Here to view it), and also used it for this last October's Header. Therefore, I figured some of you might like to see the Street Chopper feature since it has better details and shows how the bike changed some. I reformatted the article so that it would fit the blog and make it easier to read the captions.

Once again it was also the cover bike. Instead of the original metal flake, the bike was repainted a candy orange. I like the former better.


Check the custom touches like the peanut tank's chromed side panels, the hex down tubes and pin striping as you view the photos. Very much like the stuff you'd see on a Von Dutch custom.




Custom Cycle Engineering Finned Dish Pans were now installed.


Randy of Gardena as in Smith repainted the witch again but I like his first witch better. Go back to my October 2011 header post to compare.


Note the very high position of the brake pedal. Back in the 60's, a lot of guys liked the radical (but not very practical), look it gave. The small photo shows a high clutch pedal as well.


The sissy bar now sports what I call the South Bay Swoop. Again, the paint and the metal work looks Von Dutch inspired.


The bullet taillights are cool, but note the broken license plate frame.

This bike may relate to more posts than any other to date. As evidence, check the Labels/links below.

And Now ...Something Completely Different

I'm not into Hondas, but it's cool.


Just in case you were wondering where it's from.

This Month's Header, Wowed by Joe Hurst's White Bear

This is a tale that spans decades and could only have happened with the advent of the internet. It's also a tad lengthy to properly explain.


Joe Hurst's White Bear. Definitely one of my all time favorites. The mag wheels, the metal finish, and the length reminds one of the purpose built machines built for drag racing.

Certain bikes strike a nerve with each of us. That being the topic, not long ago, Chopper Dave asked his readers, "what bike did it for you"? Almost all of his respondent's comments cited recently built bikes. I added my two cents, listing only older builds. The first one's that came to mind were, Sonny Barger's yellow panhead, Roth's Oink, Dick Hirshberg's '69 shovel, and Joe Hurst's White Bear. Now, over the years "the list" might have been different, but Joe Hurst's White Bear would always have been included and somewhere at the top.

I first saw Joe's bike many years ago. I vividly remember the place but am still not 100% sure the month and year (71-72?). It was at a Custom Car and Motorcycle Show that was held each year at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles. My memory says it took place sometime around November or December and I keep thinking it was called the L.A. Winternationals. Yes, I know that's a Drag Race, but it's also a show mentioned on the cover of the Feb. '69 issue of Choppers Magazine. Anyway, at the time, I didn't know anybody else interested in Choppers so, I asked my dad if he would take me.


A somewhat disappointing spread from Street Chopper July 1973

It's one of my fondest memories but, I only clearly remember two bikes from the entire show. The bike that just completely blew me away was Joe Hurst's White Bear chopper. After walking through the show a couple of times I kept returning for another look.

I remember at one point, Joe kicking it to life and then pulling out a giant screw driver in which he proceeded to check the spark by arcing each plug as the engine roared inside the arena. I was already a fan of Dick Allen, so that combined with his forks, the paint, bead blasted engine, pipes, dual carbs, mags, the sound, plus seeing that fully chromed open chain drive primary whirling was more than my adolescent mind could handle. It was akin to standing next to a Top Fuel Dragster on the line at Lions.


This photo can't do it justice. It was the early '70's and I had never seen anything quite like it. All the aluminum of the engine and trans was bead blasted. The matte finish contrasted nicely with every nut and bolt being chromed. This reinforced the competitive look that the stainless lines, headers, Posa carbs, and Joe Hunt magneto, brought to life.

Afterwards, I remember describing Joe's bike to anyone who would listen. Surely a bike that cool would be featured in one of the upcoming magazines. With that in mind, each month, I went to the news stands hoping to see it featured. I knew it would take awhile since in those days it was months between production and sales. It seemed like 9 to 12 months passed when White Bear finally showed up in the July '73 Street Chopper. Boy was I shocked and disappointed to find my favorite bike wasn't on the cover, no color photos, only two pages, and the last bike featured in the back! To add insult a Honda was on the cover. I didn't understand it and hoped it might show up in another magazine, but it never did. I figured I'd never see that bitchen paint job in color ever again.

Fast forward to 2006. I stumbled upon Jesse James' History of the Chopper program on Discovery and low and behold, there's Joe Hurst being interviewed for the segment on Dick Allen. I thought, wow, he's still around (possibly still local), how cool it would be to someday somehow talk with him.


Forks is a 20" overstock Dick Allen springer. It was shown with one piece pullbacks instead of risers and z-bars.

Summer 2008. On a mission to find vintage chopper photos on the net I find these dang blogs and in September decide it's time to jump in myself. One of the best blogs for chopper history and info is Irish Rich's Applied Machete and on January 19, 2009 Rich does a post on Joe's bikes titled, "More Dick Allen goodness". This prompts me to leave the following comment: Damn, You beat me to it. I've been planning a post on Joe and his bike. I was wild for the White Bear version, saw it at a show about 9 months before it was in St Chopper magazine. The paint was unreal. I was shocked and pissed they didn't run it in color. I'll still do a post on it anyway.


Open primary is chain drive, Joe mentioned it featured chrome primary and drive chains for the show. Belt drives didn't exist yet.

July 2010. One day I dig out that Street Chopper so I can finally do the post and the very next day I get an email with the subject, Joe Hurst Rode with Dick Allen. He tells me how enjoys the blog and wonders if I'm interested in some old photos of his and Dick's bikes? My response, WOW!


The issue that featured Joe's bike. That's One Wild and Crazy Honda. Joe really felt strongly that his bike should have be in Hot Bike and be feature on the cover, and told them so. Hot Bike was relatively new and catered to the performance scene. I know there are fans and friends of Jim Noteboom out there, but I still would have much rather seen White Bear on the cover. I was even less tolerant of Honda's then.

After a few days Joe sent some photos but, I wanted to wait until I had talked to him before posting anything. After a brief call, he calls me back Saturday evening and we spoke for about an hour and a half. It was a lot of information to digest. He told me how he thought of Googling "Dick Allen Biker", wondering if anything would even show up, then re-thought, why not try "Joe Hurst biker"? To his surprise he finds Rich's post with my comments, and thought to himself, he's pissed?, it was my bike, how the hell does he think I felt?


It's only been 38 years since I've seen these colors. Joe says this is from that show. He said the show was put on by the Tridents Car Club. I recall their name but not sure that's what they called the show. He mentioned a Honda won first place at the show too. He's also a little unclear what month it took place. He thought it was in the spring of '72 as later that summer he rode it cross country with Dick Allen. This and the photo below were photoshoped to bring back their faded colors.


It was always a mystery why this colorful bike was named White Bear? That will be revealed in an upcoming post. Those living around the South Bay (Los Angeles), should recognize this green belt under the power lines.

It's a real honor for me to hear, and share this historic stuff. Over the next few weeks I'll be posting more of Joe's awesome photos and info. I am really looking forward to more chats with Joe. We'll likely be meeting soon with maybe a visit to the Dick Allen Wailing Wall.

A Good Issue

It's been a while since I've posted any of my old magazines. This one has a ton of "out of sight" images. The American Chopper Enterprises/Himsl Custom Paint Studio ad came from this issue and so did one of the photos of Roth's Mail Box trike.

These cover bikes were not featured, but here's what it said on the index page: Jammin' is what it's all about. In front is a bastard '57 lower end in a '56 frame, topped off with a '62 shovelhead upper end. Close behind is a '49 Pan bored .030 oversize, raked, and running a 12" overstock extension.

The tape on the bound edge of this issue is testament to how many times I looked through it. I'll be posting more from it soon.

Custom Chopper July '71 East of Eden

The style of this feature fits right in with this month's header. As in the header, the young lady is wearing hot pants, tall boots, a knitted sweater, and round sun glasses

One of the best Custom Chopper covers and a good issue overall. Note, it's the same issue that featured the Christian Chopper.


I should of saved this shot for my '"What sort of woman reads MC art?" series.


I'll let the article do most of the talking.


Not many guys run a single carb on the left side. In this case, an S.U.


One happy dude. How many 19 year olds have/had a bike this nice?

Sano Trike Orgins

I've been meaning to post this cool ad for Himsl Trike Bodies for some time. I didn't just want to post it and leave it at that, but rather to show how it relates to other Heros of Chopper History.

The design of the body brings up the question, who first designed this style of trike body?

An Ad for Himsl trike bodies. Love the illustration. The art is not signed, but I have a strong suspicion it was done by Ed Newton. From the July '71 issue of Choppers Magazine.


Art Himsl's Preying Mantis as featured in the larger Nov. '70 Choppers magazine. It had been previously featured in Roth's July '69 digest sized Choppers magazine. Both articles mention the sale of the semi mass produced bodies. The first article calls it the Himsl Brother's Mantis and mentions Art's brother Mike. Art is still going strong but, what happened to Mike?

Because of the dates mention above, I'm sure Art's design was influenced by Roth's first trike, The Candy Wagon.

The trike won Custom Bike of the Year at the '69 Oakland Roadster Show. Art's Alien show car can be seen in the garage in the background.


Roth's Candy Wagon on the Dec.68 cover. One might assume that Ed Newton designed it, but it may not be wholly true.


The article inside shows Newton's early more ominous designs featuring booze related items plus a machine gun. Roth wanted something more kid friendly. Note that the high back seat body is absent in the drawings and nothing is mentioned in the article of the seat body's design orgin.


Was another Roth artist, namely David Mann, the one really responsible for the Candy Wagon's seat/body? Notice the pipes too, and compare to the Candy Wagon cover above. Did Roth decide on the style after seeing this? Did Dave do it after seeing the CW or see another sketch of Newt's, or visa versa? Based on this art and the date, I think Dave had the idea first. Roth published this poster in '68.

This Month's Header

"The Luck of the Biker"

This Month's Header features a tongue in cheek look at the plight of the Biker. Run ins with "The Man" have always been a familiar theme.


The Source

I grew up buying Pete Millar's Drag Cartoons, but didn't have this particular issue until a few years ago. I was familiar with it from the back issues and always thought it was cool. I've been planning to use it as a header pretty much since the blog began.

The location is in nearby Palos Verdes Estates CA, and still looks about the same. I should go there and take a photo from the same spot some time.

BiG BiKE Magazine #1 Part 1

In an effort to make this one of the more interesting blogs, I try posting stuff that you just don't see everywhere else. I have a lot of old material and try to post it when I find time. I planned on posting some bikes from my collection of early Big Bike magazines, when a reader emailed me asking that I do just that.

Those early issues (69-late 70), were the best and there's probably no better place to start than with issue number 1.

I can't tell you how excited I was when I found this magazine on the newsstand of a drugstore in July of 1969. (magazines come out a month early).


Note: Joe Teresi (later of Easyriders) was the Technical Editor.

Before I post the first bike feature, keep in mind a few things:
1. I didn't want to damage the spine on a precious 40 year old magazine by smashing it flat on the scanner so, I took pictures with a camera.
2. These old magazines didn't always have the best photo or print quality.
3. I Photoshop each page adjusting for distortion, exposure, flaws, etc.
4. If you hate my watermark on the images (I'll try not to make them too distracting), remember, I spend a lot of time on each image only to find that they sometimes get posted on other bogs without credit.

St Chopper Jan.'72

The look 38 years ago. Great issue, all Sporties. I want to go to there.

The Early 70's...

Rocked!
Sometimes I forget how cool it was.

Custom Chopper was probably my favorite magazine at that time.


I usually don't dig chops with stretched frames and long narrowed wide glides as much as I do on this ride. This bike is just about perfect. It was somewhat rare to run a rear 18" at that time.


Fashion was still influenced by the 60's. It was cool that they just used the guy's girl friends for models instead of the (strippers), poser models of today.



Peace signs and...


... bell bottoms.

Hopefully this post will keep M.D. from getting the blues again.

Dutch Treat, as in Von

That's Kenny holding up the tiny Honda chopper. I believe it was called Teeny Weenie. I remember it from another magazine, maybe a later Choppers magazine. They re-ran some of the early issue features and bikes in the later large format magazine.


Big Daddy gives lots of good information about this mysterious man who had already become a character of legend in '68.